In today's information age, peaceful and quiet evenings at home are becoming increasingly rare. Telemarketing organizations are proliferating and the number of calls initiated thereby are increasing to the point that many people feel continuously under assault by the telemarketing industry. It is not uncommon for a person to receive multiple telemarketing calls in one night. Certainly, large numbers of people trying to enjoy a quiet evening at home are frequently frustrated by the continuously ringing phone.
For a small charge, telemarketers can buy a file that contains the details of one's personal life including education, training, income and spending habits. Information about consumers is continuously accumulated by and exchanged between many telemarketing organizations. Once found by one telemarketing organization means once found by all telemarketing organizations. Thus, the data information world chases the peace and quiet loving consumer from cradle to grave.
Moreover, because the telemarketing information world continuously accumulates and shares information among its members, an individual may wind up on information lists or target lists throughout the nation in a manner of days or weeks as a result of just one purchase by phone. Thus, in a short period of time, one could easily wind up having more telemarketing organizations than friends knowing and calling one's phone number.
This invasion by telemarketers has become a significant concern. Many governments of industrialized nations are addressing the problem through legislation. For example, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has banned the use of automatic dialers commonly used in telemarketing and has put other restrictions on telemarketers. The CRTC ruled that telemarketers must remove consumers from calling lists within thirty days of a request by the consumer. Here in the United States, the Federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 requires telemarketing organizations to remove a consumer's name off of its lists whenever requested to do so by the consumer. The problem under the Federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, however, is that the consumer must make the effort to establish contact with the telemarketing organization to convey such a removal request. Requesting that one's name be removed from a telemarketing list is easier said than done.
One way of establishing contact to request removal from a telemarketing organization call list is to actually take the telemarketing call. Having to personally reject a telemarketer's sales pitch, however, is an uncomfortable task for many people. Moreover, taking the call can be time consuming. If a pre-recorded message is being played, one must wait until the end of the message to reach a live person or to obtain a number to call back.
Many different steps have been taken to respond to this invasion of privacy and obtain freedom from telemarketer calls. Unfortunately, significant effort and diligence is required to remain a recluse in the information age. One solution is to buy an answering machine and to screen all incoming calls to avoid fielding calls from telemarketers. However, this solution means that a consumer can not use their phone service in the manner in which it is intended and for which the consumer pays a monthly telephone service charge. Moreover, screening calls is not always practical. This is especially true since telemarketers seem to have a propensity for calling at inconvenient times.
Another solution that is available but that has not yielded completely satisfactory results is that of writing the Direct Marketing Association, an industry trade group, to ask the Association to remove one's name from the calling lists of its member organizations. It is known that this eliminates much telemarketing activity. However, a letter to the Direct Marketing Association does not stop local businesses, charities, credit card issuers or anyone who buys information lists from a multitude of other sources. This solution is also temporary because the next purchase made from a catalog company may land the consumer right back on the Direct Marketing Association's mailing list.
Each of these solutions can require significant effort and time on the part of the consumer. Cumulatively, the problem is worse. A consumer could be forced to spend unacceptable amounts of time making requests to the multiple telemarketing organizations to be taken off the various call lists. Keeping one's name off these lists can seem like a full time occupation. Thus, what is needed is a system which does not require the consumer to buy additional equipment and which minimizes the amount of time and effort the consumer must expend in order to repel this invasion of privacy by the telemarketing industry.